This is the time of the baseball season when sport bettor’s and handicappers have to be very cautious in making selections. The trade deadline has passed and some of the non-contending teams have traded off key players in exchange for looking to the future. It’s the time of year you must be very aware of those teams that are on the bubble, or in contention to make a playoff run.

Many games on the schedule will start to show starting pitchers that have less than three starts on the season and some being called up with zero starts. Teams that have no chance of post-season play will be looking at rookies and bench players while starting to give them some game experience to get ready for next year.

Statistical data does not come into play when you have a contending team going against a non-contender that is starting a new pitcher or has a lineup with 3 or 4 rookies or bench players. These games are ones that you will always look to play “on” the contender or don’t play it all. As you season gets further along and teams start to solidify a playoff spot, you must start to watch the managers that will be sitting the players with little nagging injuries a game or two to get healed for the playoffs.

Contending teams with “momentum” are also situations that you very rarely want to go against. Either play “on” these teams or don’t play at all. Doing a lot of reading at this time of the season, plus watching the standings closely can pay big dividends in determining who are the “wanna win” teams and those that have packed in until next year.

There will be less opportunities for plays from here on, in fact looking at today’s schedule (Tuesday Aug 3) you will see 6 games on the schedule with teams starting pitchers having less than 3 starts on the season. For me these are games I just scratch and don’t even consider handicapping the game. Without the statistical date on a starting pitcher, there is no way I can get a line on the game. The upside of having fewer and fewer games to handicap as the season winds down, is that it will free up some time to get ready for football…

Speaking of Football…Don’t miss out on our “Early Bird Football Season Special” We are going for 19^th consecutive winning season…